Barack Obama Has Declared France Is America’s Greatest Ally
Editorials, News, Politics - Tweet this! January 11th, 2011Following yesterday’s meeting at the White House between American President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a wave of indignation has arisen in the United Kingdom over Obama’s latest remarks. By declaring France America’s greatest ally, not only are we lights years away from the days of French Bashing by the Bush / Cheney administration, the comments are likely to renew anti-French sentiment on the right of the American political spectrum.
More :
- President Obama Meets with President Sarkozy – WhiteHouse.gov
- British Reaction to Obama’s declaration
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January 28th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Good news: Wizard has ceased publication. Given that, in addtion of being the poster child for everything that went wrong with amercian comics in the 90s, their tendancy to make enormous mistakes and not correcting them, and their adolescent fratboy “humor”, they were also notorious french-bashers, I consider this a good news.
January 30th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I was thinking about the Daily Mail article : the (conservative) Brits and Americans alike seems to be really, really pissed about Obama’s sentence… What I am sure though, is that it would be no good for France to have a similar “special relation” with Washington : look what is left to our once proud and powerful rival !
March 18th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
It’s about time that our government reasserted the fact that France is our greatest ally. If not for France, there probably would’nt be a United States. It’s ironic that this made the English angry. The ruthlesness with which they prosecuted the American Revolution pales even in comparison to the film ” The Patriot”.
February 15th, 2012 at 3:48 pm
The Mail is an absolute discrace of a paper in the UK, I wouldn’t take any notice of what their myopic readership might say.
Didn’t understand the fuss about this, it’s not as if Obama was saying that the French were their greatest ally or anything it’s just that for once France does not have a president who will stab them in the back. This is a complete storm in a tea cup.
I didn’t agree with the UK’s backing of the war in Iraq, but convicted criminal Chirac should not have tried to organise opposition against it.
How would the French feel if the US got involved in some of their little colonial wars and coups? Just like De Gaulle’s shameful attitude to the anglo-saxons who sheltered him during the war and then liberated his country, this is not a behaviour of an ally.
Ken Williams – I wouldn’t get your information about history from holywood films, if I were you, particularly Mel Gibson ones. Try reading some books
Onion Jonny – “the once proud and powerful nation” is doing all right thanks although I would like us to loosen our ties with both the US and EU. The UK, just like France, is having to get used to the fact that it is no longer such a powerful nation. The sooner this happens the better.
May 3rd, 2012 at 8:07 am
Dear BigM,
whether you like it or not (or have the honesty to recognize it), France IS the first ally of the United States. Fact.
You can’t turn the clocks back and – sadly for you – English bitterness won’t change a thing about it.
“ If not for France, there probably would’nt be a United States. It’s ironic that this made the English angry. ”
May 4th, 2012 at 10:07 am
“Just like De Gaulle’s shameful attitude to the anglo-saxons who sheltered him during the war and then liberated his country, this is not a behaviour of an ally.”
Yeah, well, if you’vfe been treated by your “friends” the way De Gaulle was treated by the British and (especially) the Americans, you would have been pretty peeved too. For starters, the majority of the french soldiers who had been evacuated at Dunkerque were sent back to France as soon as they landed in England, thus depriving him of troops right away. Then, there was Mers El Kebir. Then, the attitude of Roosevelt, who considered Pétain as the true leader of France. And it goes on: not being told of the landing in Algeria, being snubbed for leadrship of the French army in favour of admiral Darlan (Pétain’s chosen successor), and then Giraud, the project to see France administered by an AMGOT, being (along with China) snubbed at Yalta, protection given by the CIA to wanted war criminals like Lammerding or Barbie, and so on..
And it kept on after the war: remember Suez ? Frankly, you would have been in his place, you would have been pissed off too. Read “Strange Allies” to get a better idea. Ingratitude, you say ? Good memory, I’ll say.